Spoken like a true WWE announcer, their Bandcamp profile warns that "The Lithuanian savages Stranguliatorius are back with a vengeance to deliver a brutal dose of raw death metal." Other buzzterms like "riffs that hit like a sledgehammer!" are abundant, but it takes no sesquipedalian to realize that Stranguliatorius has released their newest album, "Flies Don't Lie" via HPGD Records. Stranguliatorius is one of the first metal groups I've listened to from The Land of the Storks, and, in my experience, groups from Lithuania in general. Black Spikes, Katarsis, and Clockwork Creep come to mind, courtesy of their Eurovizija.LT performances, but these unsanitary grinders mark a new, albeit short, chapter in my Baltic metal journey.

It's one of those one-page-long chapters that adds little to the story, but acts as a nice treat to read. "Flies Don't Lie" is forgettable, but dumb fun to listen to in the moment. For a deathgrind record, songs surprisingly reach upwards of four minutes and unsurprisingly downwards of eight whole seconds. In longer pieces (see "Cremator Operator," "He Who Doesn't Sleep Will Not Wake Up"), the instrumentation boldly takes its sweet ass time, showing clear death metal influences. Hell, this record is as much death metal as it is any type of grind. The gritty mixing pushes these extended cuts into deathgrind territories, with muddy guitar chugs, deep growls, and a snare that cannot be ignored. The problem is, none of it has any lasting impact. That's not entirely a length issue; I ironically remember the eight-second song.

I can't slander "Flies Don't Lie" too hard, as there are some interesting elements. Firstly, each track is written in Stranguliatorius' mother tongue. I'll always award a foreign band for doing so. It may not be noticeable at first, as it's probably not meant to be, but each line concerning medical procedures or death is purely Lithuanian. The English lyrics can seem rather stale, but it's not meant to be in English. The lyrics aren't overly gory, edgy, or NSFW. I can handle gross shit, but I thank Strangu for playing on the "nicer" side. Besides the here-and-there sample of some serial killer's interview or ambience of what I assume to be a hospital, nothing stuck with me. Deathgrind is supposed to leave me dazed for days, but after half an hour, it wore off.

"Flies Don't Lie" isn't offensive at all. Strangu is an alright band that released some alright deathgrind. If they tapped deeper into the inner workings of the genre and packed more of a punch, then I'd be more on board. For now, the flies do lie.